Porto, Portugal, July 11, 2013 – Austria’s Paul Buchegger and Philipp Waller started their first FIVB U19 World Championships campaign with two straight wins on Thursday.

The high seeded team defeated Italian qualifiers Giacomo De Fabritis and Javier Facundo Martinez 23-21 21-16 and Gerson David Contreras Lacayo and Ruben Alejandro Mora Romero from Nicaragua 21-12 21-14.

“Our first game was pretty hard against Italy, the second we did quite well”, Buchegger said. “We played solid, did not make many mistakes and we served well. Tomorrow we have Kazakhstan. We don’t know them, but if we play like this we can win.”

The 1,96 metres tall blocker and Waller are both in a special high school in Austria where they can combine studying and playing volleyball. In the summer they engage in beach volleyball.

Just one week of training

Buchegger and Waller had never played together before and had only one week of training together to prepare for their first FIVB age group event.

Waller finished 7th at the CEV U18 last year with another partner. “The level here is much higher.”

But after the first day their hopes are high. “We have seen the other teams now and we think we have a good chance to get a medal here”, Buchegger said.

Nicaragua still in the race

Their opponents in the second match, Nicaragua’s Contreras and Mora, also still have a good chance to come far, after winning their first game against Kazakhstan 2-0 (21-13 21-19).

For the Nicaraguans the U19 is their first FIVB age group event too. “It was my biggest dream”, Mora said. “And I am going to win as many matches as possible, because I enjoyed the feeling of winning very much this morning.”